Jordan signs USD 52.8 mln deals with WB, JSDF for budget, projects

[6/29/2017 6:35:19 AM]

AMMONNEWS - ­­ Jordan has signed USD 52.8 million soft loan and grant agreements with the World Bank and Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) to support the state budget and finance social projects targeting youths in the Kingdom, Jordan's government said on Wednesday.

The two agreements were signed during a recent visit by Minister of Planning and International CooperationImad Fakhoury to Washington.

During the visit, the minister discussed the planned US aid to Jordan in 2018, it added.

He also discussed renewing the Jordanian­US memorandum of understanding for 2018­22, governing the militaryand economic aid to Jordan.

Fakhoury said the first agreement is a USD 50 support to the Kingdom budget, of which USD 36.1 million weregranted as a soft loan, while the remaining USD 13.9 million were a grant within the Concessional FinancingFacility (CFF), which was launched last year and is run by the World Bank.

The second agreement is a USD 2.8 million grant by the JSDF, which aims to provide integrated social servicesfor youths in the Kingdom, he noted.

The minister stressed the importance of increasing aid to Amman in the upcoming period to help the countryoverome big challenges.